IntroductionBattle of Gilneas is a Rated Battleground that could cause some of the most drawn out fights. For anyone who has queued themselves into this Rated Battleground before would know how intense the fight at Waterworks can be. Today I'll be giving out a general guide to this battleground.

The 3 nodes in Battle of Gilneas are as followed: Lighthouse, Mine, and Waterworks.

Lighthouse is the node that will be next to the initial Alliance spawn point.

Mine is the node that will be next to the initial Horde spawn point.

Waterworks is near the middle of both, which will be the node that both the Alliance and Horde battles for first usually.

Strategies

Common Strategy - The 1+9The most common strategy to use in Battle of Gilneas is to leave one person defending your "home" node (Lighthouse or Mine) and use the rest to attack Waterworks. This is one of the most common strategies due to it's simplicity to execute, and it gives you time to react to most other strategies.

Risky Strategy - The 2+8An alternative cheesier strategy would be the 2+8. You send almost everyone to Waterworks except for 2 invisible units. The 2 invisible people will attack the "opposite" node (Lighthouse or Mine). You also leave 0 people at your own base, because the 2 invisible people should be able to react and defend it if it does get attacked. This won't be true if both teams are doing an invisible ambush. The 2 invisible people can nuke the one player at the node, or CC him to capture it. Rogue / Mage / Druid any 2 of the 3 is a good combination for a huge CC chain.

Composition

This is the type of composition I would recommend for Battle of Gilneas.

Use either a Warrior, Mage, Hunter, or Warlock for defending. Hunter would most likely be the best for this job if available.

Reacting to Opponent's StrategyAs said previously, most teams will use the common 1+9 strategy, where you leave one player to defend the node and rest to attack Waterworks. This common strategy usually leads up to a gigantic continuous 9v9 battle at Waterworks. Now when is it smart to use such a head-on strategy?

I recommend the common strategy if you believe you're Rated Battleground team is stronger than the other one. If your players are more experienced, have a better composition or more geared and can win the 9v9 this strategy is most likely the best. The 1+9 strategy is used commonly because it has very few flaws, and when executed well it can prevent the 2+8 and other cheesier strategies.

However what if you go in and you see that the other team is 200+ ratings higher than yours? This is when I recommend using alternative cheese strategies such as the 2+8. When you do the 2+8, make sure to have the 8 people drag the fight as long as possible and force the enemy to not be able to escape and assist the base that's getting 2v1'd. If you see a Protection Warrior defending Lighthouse or Mine, get your Mage / Rogue / Druid to CC him to death. If it's a easy to kill class, plainly nuke him instantly.

The Score... How to React?

If you successfully capture 2 bases congratulations! Simply don't mess up from here on out and your team should win. Battle of Gilneas is cruel, once a team is ahead with 2 bases it's hard to make a come-back.

What if you're on the team that lost Waterworks? Or maybe lost a base to a cheesier strategy? Here's a few things to keep in mind when you're behind in Battle of Gilneas:

Don't Give Up - If you're not leaving the BG be prepared to fight it out. Don't be half baked if you still want to win. Encourage your teammates, and get ready to make a come-back. It's really common for people to give up on Battle of Gilneas once they lose a base because frankly, it's difficult to make a come-back. However, you won't know til you try!

Fake the Other Team - Mount up with your whole team and pretend to go to one node, then quickly shift to another. Have your Mage drop a Ring of Frost or any other classes with AOE CCs right as you guys switch to stop the enemy team.

Use Invisible Units Correctly - Have a drawn out battle at one base, and sneakily send your invisible units to the other one.

Play it Risky - If deemed needed, have no one defend your last base. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

Communication

Communication is vital in every Rated Battleground. Here are some key things to always communicate on:

Who's Capping the initial node

Who's Defending

Who's Watching Ninja Caps / Who's AOEing Waterworks initial battle

When to Break Off

Target Calling

Healers Drinking

Healers OOM

An Attack or some form of strategy change from the opposing team

Final Tips

Here are some final tips to keep in mind!

Make sure to cap the initial node as soon as possible. For example, a Warrior that can heroic leap, or a Druid can sprint / Displacer Beast. It's not 100% uncommon to have nobody cap Waterworks and have the win go to the faster cap.

Make sure Defenders always have a trinket and whatever second cooldown they have to get out of Crowd-Controls. For example, if a paladin is defending make sure he has bubble in addition to trinket otherwise he may need help.

Always keep someone watching the flag to AOE ninjas.

If it's a real drawn out fight, make sure to send melee in on healers. DON'T LET THEM DRINK!

Worgen Druids are overpowered. Be careful of an extreme fast cap on Waterworks. A Paladin and Death Knight can stop them right in time; make sure your fast players are not sleeping on the job when the battleground starts.

Paladins / Death Knights have a 20% faster mount speed, use it wisely.

Please feel free to comment and make any suggestions. This was meant to serve as a general guide and was built mainly from my personal experience. If any good input is made I'll gladly edit it in to the guide for other people to check out!

I put it in the final tips for "Worgen Druids". I experienced that once but if you have a Paladin or Death Knight on the team they should just barely be able to make it in time.

yeah that's wrong. 1. you dont have to be worgen, it just makes it even easier. 2. If you have a mage or lock mount the druid in travel form, if anybody on there team has a chance at stopping you the mage or lock can cc them before they even cross the water and it doesnt matter if you go back side or front side.

There is a lot this guide is missing, but I rather sit here smug rather than reveal them to the public. Anyways, why an RBG guide on old content, how about Silvershard Mines or Temple of Kotmogu? Honestly though, I think your strategies aren't delving enough beneath the surface of RBG and perhaps this is due to your lack of experience in them.

There is a lot this guide is missing, but I rather sit here smug rather than reveal them to the public. Anyways, why an RBG guide on old content, how about Silvershard Mines or Temple of Kotmogu? Honestly though, I think your strategies aren't delving enough beneath the surface of RBG and perhaps this is due to your lack of experience in them.

I'm not a high rated player, just an average one... but I knew all that was in that guide already, it's just basic common sense. As an above poster has already said, there is not much depth to the guide. To be fair Gilneas is a fairly simple battleground and you don't really need a lot of strategy.

Would love to see a guide on Temple of Kotmogu and Eye of the storm. (Basically cuz it's the one we have the most trouble with)

I would have to disagree with the consensus. I myself found this guide very helpful (due to the fact that I'm new to battlegrounds). I understand that those who have played rbgs since day one might not get very much out of it but for newcomers this is absolute meat sauce.

I play alliance and the best i have found is to have a lock, DK, myself (DiscPriest) group up and rush WW to slow the horde down but we go to the left road while I send the rest of the team over the normal rout that hits the speed buff and around the building.

This allows for the 1 person to sit LH. The DK gets to pull people in the water back to the bank. While the lock sets up a gate first thing. I focus on a fear and entangles of anyone about to cross into the water.

This has many advantages to cause if someone pushes LH right away at the start i myself as a healer can rush over there quickly with feathers and shadow meld for a fast mount to get out of combat that I may be in(im half out of combat due to being on the far side bank of ww flag). the gate allows my DK to jump to WW at any time after pulling people and cc’ing them at the start. There are a total of 6 that go around the normal rout over the speed buff which allows plenty of dps to crash and wipe what few get to WW. The DK and I usually trap like 3-4 near the water.

Opinions and such are great any feedback might help better you or others